"sea snake to be found in the Caribbean Sea. However these occurrences are believed to be the result of human activity, be it ship discharge, intentional release or via the Panama Canal, as it is not considered a part of their native range. This is due to the land bridge between North and South America (Isthmus of Panama), which formed from about 10 million years ago to 3 million years ago (i.e., continental drift), acting as a dispersal barrier and preventing entry into the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific Ocean. The man-made Panama Canal has not made a crossing of"
"of about . The sea's deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays: the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria and Gulf of Honduras. The Caribbean Sea has the world's second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. The name ""Caribbean"" derives from the Caribs, one of the region's dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th"
"Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea (; ; ) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and south west, to the north by the Greater Antilles starting with Cuba, to the east by the Lesser Antilles, and to the south by the north coast of South America. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the numerous islands of the West Indies, and adjacent coasts, are collectively known as the Caribbean. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area"
"other by underwater ridges and mountain ranges. Atlantic Ocean water enters the Caribbean through the ""Anegada Passage"" lying between the Lesser Antilles and Virgin Islands and the ""Windward Passage"" located between Cuba and Haiti. The Yucatán Channel between Mexico and Cuba links the Gulf of Mexico with the Caribbean. The deepest points of the sea lie in Cayman Trough with depths reaching approximately . Despite this, the Caribbean Sea is considered a relatively shallow sea in comparison to other bodies of water. The pressure of the South American Plate to the east of the Caribbean causes the region of the"
"with the Caribbean, and by the Panama Canal, built in the 20th century, it is connected to the Pacific. The American Mediterranean Sea drains approximately in North America and Caribbean South America; it is the 2nd largest sea watershed. The watershed depends on South American water bodies such as the Magdalena River with , as well as the Guajira Peninsula and the Gulf of Venezuela. Central American drainages include those of/to the Belize River, Gulf of Honduras, Caratasca Lagoon, Nicaraguan Caribbean Lowlands, and the Colorado River in Costa Rica. In North America, the sea mostly drains by the Mississippi River"
"living conditions superior to those they currently have [without the canal]."" Nicaragua Canal The Nicaraguan Canal (), formally the Nicaraguan Canal and Development Project (also referred to as the Nicaragua Grand Canal, or the Grand Interoceanic Canal) was a proposed shipping route through Nicaragua to connect the Caribbean Sea (and therefore the Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean. Scientists were concerned about the project's environmental impact, as Lake Nicaragua is Central America's key freshwater reservoir while the project's viability was questioned by shipping experts and engineers. Construction of a canal using the San Juan River as an access route to"
"the tropical Indian Ocean, including most of the Indian Ocean coast of the Indonesian archipelago, the northern Australian coast, and the Cocos and Christmas islands. It extends through the tropical seas connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, including the Java Sea in central Indonesia, the South China Sea between the Asian land mass and the Philippine and Malay archipelagos, and the Arafura Sea separating Australia and New Guinea. It includes the seas surrounding island groups of the western Pacific, including the Ryukyu Islands, Caroline Islands, Marianas Islands, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Tonga,"
"Caribbean Current The Caribbean Current is a warm ocean current that transports significant amounts of water and flows northwestward through the Caribbean from the east along the coast of South America and into the Gulf of Mexico. The current results from the flow of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current as it flows north along the coast of Brazil. As the current turns north through the Yucatán Channel, it is renamed the Yucatán Current. The Caribbean Current water comes from the Atlantic Ocean via the North Equatorial, North Brazil, and Guiana Currents. The circulation of the Columbia-Panama Gyre flows counter-clockwise to"
"arc was formed by the collision of the South American Plate with the Caribbean Plate and includes active and extinct volcanoes such as Mount Pelee, the Quill (volcano) on Sint Eustatius in the Caribbean Netherlands and Morne Trois Pitons on Dominica. The larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a horizontal fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed"
"the Caribbean Current. Caribbean Current The Caribbean Current is a warm ocean current that transports significant amounts of water and flows northwestward through the Caribbean from the east along the coast of South America and into the Gulf of Mexico. The current results from the flow of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current as it flows north along the coast of Brazil. As the current turns north through the Yucatán Channel, it is renamed the Yucatán Current. The Caribbean Current water comes from the Atlantic Ocean via the North Equatorial, North Brazil, and Guiana Currents. The circulation of the Columbia-Panama Gyre"
"Nicaragua Canal The Nicaraguan Canal (), formally the Nicaraguan Canal and Development Project (also referred to as the Nicaragua Grand Canal, or the Grand Interoceanic Canal) was a proposed shipping route through Nicaragua to connect the Caribbean Sea (and therefore the Atlantic Ocean) with the Pacific Ocean. Scientists were concerned about the project's environmental impact, as Lake Nicaragua is Central America's key freshwater reservoir while the project's viability was questioned by shipping experts and engineers. Construction of a canal using the San Juan River as an access route to Lake Nicaragua was first proposed in the early colonial era. The"
"continental volcanic arc called the Omineca Arc. Magma rising from the Omineca Arc successfully connected the Intermontane Belt to the mainland of North America, forming a chain of volcanoes from Washington to British Columbia that existed for about 60 million years. The ocean lying offshore during this period is called the Bridge River Ocean. About 115 million years ago, another island arc collided with the Pacific Northwest called the Insular Islands and caused the Bridge River Ocean to close. Like the earlier buildup of the Intermontane Islands, this island arc connected to the Intermontane Belt as magma solidified and rose"
"Drake Passage The Drake Passage () or Mar de Hoces—Sea of Hoces—is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean (Scotia Sea) with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean. The passage receives its English-language name from the 16th-century English privateer Sir Francis Drake. Drake's only remaining ship, after having passed through the Strait of Magellan, was blown far south in September 1578. This incident implied an open connection between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Half a"
"Mona Passage The Mona Passage () is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The stretch of sea between the four islands is one of the most difficult passages in the Caribbean. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by the large islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out for many miles from both coasts. There are three islands in the Mona Passage: The Passage"
"around South America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. However, most commercial shipping uses the open-ocean Drake Passage. The Beagle Channel is about long and is about wide at its narrowest point. It extends from Nueva Island in the east to Darwin Sound and Cook Bay of the Pacific Ocean in the west. Some from its western end it divides into two branches, north and south of Gordon Island. The southwest branch between Hoste Island and Gordon Island enters Cook Bay. The northwest branch between Gordon Island and Isla Grande enters Darwin Sound connecting to the Pacific Ocean by the"
"water passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, permitting ship transit in both directions. The lake is essential to the canal's water supply, as it provides the millions of gallons of water at the high level needed for the locks to function correctly. The lake is also part of the navigational canal and provides drinking water for Panama City and Colon. At the time it was formed, Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world. The impassable rainforest around Gatun Lake has been the best defense of the Panama Canal. Today, these areas have endured practically"
"Isthmus of Panama The Isthmus of Panama (), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country of Panama and the Panama Canal. Like many isthmuses, it is a location of great strategic value. The isthmus formed around 2.8 million years ago. This major geological event separated the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and caused the creation of the Gulf Stream. This was first suggested in 1910 by North American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn. He based"
"Panama Canal Railway The Panama Canal Railway () is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near Panama City). Because of the difficult physical conditions of the route and state of technology, the construction was renowned as an international engineering achievement, one that cost US$8 million and the lives of an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 workers. Opened in 1855, the railway preceded the Panama Canal by half a century; the ship canal was later constructed parallel to the railway."
"are the Celebes Sea, Coral Sea, East China Sea (East Sea), Philippine Sea, Sea of Japan (East Sea), South China Sea (South Sea), Sulu Sea, Tasman Sea, and Yellow Sea (West Sea of Korea). The Indonesian Seaway (including the Strait of Malacca and Torres Strait) joins the Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the west, and Drake Passage and the Strait of Magellan link the Pacific with the Atlantic Ocean on the east. To the north, the Bering Strait connects the Pacific with the Arctic Ocean. As the Pacific straddles the 180th meridian, the ""West Pacific"" (or ""western Pacific"", near"
"attracted pirates such as Samuel Bellamy and Blackbeard. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows: Note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate. The Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad and Tobago off the coast of Venezuela. This"
"Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) is a region of North America that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean) and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, and north of South America. Situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. (See the list of Caribbean islands.) These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges"
"in Puerto Rico. Mona Passage The Mona Passage () is a strait that separates the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Mona Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, and is an important shipping route between the Atlantic and the Panama Canal. The stretch of sea between the four islands is one of the most difficult passages in the Caribbean. It is fraught with variable tidal currents created by the large islands on either side of it, and by sand banks that extend out for many miles from both coasts. There are three islands in the Mona"
"assets of the Panama Canal Company, and finished the canal in 1914. A significant body of water (referred to as the Central American Seaway) once separated the continents of North and South America, allowing the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to mix freely. Beneath the surface, two plates of the Earth's crust were slowly colliding, forcing the Cocos Plate to slide under the Caribbean Plate. The pressure and heat caused by this collision led to the formation of underwater volcanoes, some of which grew large enough to form islands as early as 15 million years ago. Meanwhile, movement"
"a human-made route between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Colombia occupies most of the Andes mountain range northern extremity sharing a bit with Venezuela which splits into three branches between the Colombia-Ecuador border. In the 1980s, only 3% of all Colombians resided in the Pacific lowlands, a region of jungle and swamp with considerable but little-exploited potential in minerals and other resources. Buenaventura is the only port of any size on the coast. On the east, the Pacific lowlands are bounded by the Cordillera Occidental, from which numerous streams run. Most of the streams flow westward to the Pacific,"
"between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela with Trinidad and Tobago having control over approximately (37.7%) and Venezuela the remainder(62.3%). It was originally named the Gulf of the Whale () by Christopher Columbus, but the 19th Century whaling industry eliminated whales from the area and populations have never recovered. Cartographic sources of the late 18th century repeatedly refer to it as the Sad Gulf (). In the north, the gulf is connected to the Caribbean Sea through the Dragons' Mouths () between the Paria Peninsula of Venezuela and the Chaguaramas Peninsula of Trinidad. In the south, the gulf is connected to"
"memorable work of pulp fiction has in its title a geographic feature unique in its way to the islands: ""Fear Cay"", the eleventh Doc Savage adventure by Lester Dent. Many James Bond adventures were set there. It is also well known as the location of the Pirates of the Caribbean films, featuring Port Royal. Peter Matthiessen's ""Far Tortuga"" (1975) chronicles the adventures of a turtling crew in the late 1960s. Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea (; ; ) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America"
"Panama Canal The Panama Canal () is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m (85 ft) above sea level, and then lower the ships at the other end. The original locks are 34 m (110 ft) wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007"
"Ocean and the Caribbean. It is bordered on the north by the Straits of Florida, on the northeast by Nicholas Channel and the Old Bahama Channel. The southern part is bounded by the Windward Passage and the Cayman Trench, while the southwest lies in the Caribbean Sea. To the west, it reaches to the Yucatán Channel, and the northwest is open to the Gulf of Mexico. More than 4,000 islands and cays are found in the surrounding sea and bays. The southern coast includes such archipelagos as Jardines de la Reina and the Canarreos. The northeastern shore is lined by"
"Culebra Cut The Culebra Cut, formerly called Gaillard Cut, is an artificial valley that cuts through the Continental Divide in Panama. The cut forms part of the Panama Canal, linking Gatun Lake, and thereby the Atlantic Ocean, to the Gulf of Panama and hence the Pacific Ocean. It is from the Pedro Miguel lock on the Pacific side to the Chagres River arm of Lake Gatun, with a water level above sea level. Construction of the cut was one of the great engineering feats of its time; the immense effort required to complete it was justified by the great significance"
"Pacific Ranges The Pacific Ranges are the southernmost subdivision of the Coast Mountains portion of the Pacific Cordillera. Located entirely within British Columbia, Canada, they run northwest from the lower stretches of the Fraser River to Bella Coola and Burke Channel, north of which are the Kitimat Ranges. The Coast Mountains lie between the Interior Plateau and the Coast of British Columbia. The Pacific Ranges include four of the five major coastal icecaps in the southern Coast Mountains. These are the largest temperate-latitude icecaps in the world and fuel a number of very major rivers (by volume, not length). One"
"occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these basins marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean and contributed to the destruction of Pangaea at the end of the late Jurassic. During the Cretaceous the Caribbean acquired the shape close to that seen today. In the early Paleogene due to Marine regression the Caribbean became separated from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean by the land of Cuba and Haiti. The Caribbean remained like this for most of the Cenozoic until the Holocene when rising water levels of the oceans restored communication with the Atlantic Ocean. The"
"and finally auctioned The channel connects the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Ancud. Chacao Channel The Chacao Channel (Spanish: ""Canal de Chacao"") is located in Los Lagos Region, Chile and separates Chiloé Island from mainland Chile. The channel was created during the Quaternary glaciations by successive glaciers that flowed down from the Andes to the coast. The construction of a bridge connecting the island with the continent was discussed at government level for some time, but during the first government of Michelle Bachelet (2006–2010) it was turned down due to its high cost in comparison with other proposals that could"
"Puerto Rico Trench The Puerto Rico Trench is located on the boundary between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The oceanic trench is associated with a complex transition between the Lesser Antilles subduction zone to the south and the major transform fault zone or plate boundary, which extends west between Cuba and Hispaniola through the Cayman Trough to the coast of Central America. The trench is long and has a maximum depth of or 5.373 miles at Milwaukee Deep, which is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean and the deepest point not in the Pacific Ocean. Scientific studies"